Editing Amedeo Modigliani (section)

===Transformation===
Within a year of arriving in Paris, however, his demeanour and reputation had changed dramatically. He transformed himself from a dapper academician artist into a sort of prince of vagabonds.

The poet and journalist [[Louis Latourette]], upon visiting the artist's previously well-appointed studio after his transformation, discovered the place in upheaval, the Renaissance reproductions discarded from the walls, the plush drapes in disarray. Modigliani was already an alcoholic and a drug addict by this time, and his studio reflected this. Modigliani's behaviour at this time sheds some light upon his developing style as an artist, in that the studio had become almost a sacrificial effigy for all that he resented about the academic art that had marked his life and his training up to that point.

Not only did he remove all the trappings of his bourgeois heritage from his studio, but he also set about destroying practically all of his own early work, which he described as "Childish baubles, done when I was a dirty bourgeois".<ref name="Werner 1967 19">{{Cite book| last = Werner | first = Alfred | year = 1967 | title = Amedeo Modigliani | location = London | publisher = Thames and Hudson. | page = 19| isbn = 0-8109-0323-7}}</ref>

The motivation for this violent rejection of his earlier self is the subject of considerable speculation. From the time of his arrival in Paris, Modigliani consciously crafted a charade persona for himself and cultivated his reputation as a hopeless drunk and voracious drug user. His escalating intake of drugs and alcohol may have been a means by which Modigliani masked his tuberculosis from his acquaintances, few of whom knew of his condition.<ref>Secrest, Meryle, Modigliani, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, p. 181, 183</ref> Tuberculosis—the leading cause of death in France by 1900<ref>Secrest, Meryle, Modigliani, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, p. 181</ref>—was highly communicable, there was no cure, and those who had it were feared, ostracized, and pitied. Modigliani thrived on camaraderie and would not let himself be isolated as an invalid; he used drink and drugs as palliatives to ease his physical pain, helping him to maintain a façade of vitality and allowing him to continue to create his art.<ref>Secrest, Meryle, Modigliani, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, p. 298</ref>

Modigliani's use of drink and drugs intensified from about 1914 onward. After years of remission and recurrence, this was the period during which the symptoms of his tuberculosis worsened, signaling that the disease had reached an advanced stage.<ref>Secrest, Meryle, Modigliani, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, p. 182</ref>

[[File:Amedeo Modigliani - Nu Couché au coussin Bleu.jpg|thumb|''[[Nu Couché au coussin Bleu]]'', one of the finest examples of reclining nudes by Modigliani, 1916<ref>{{cite web|url=http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/.../279754.pdf |title=Women in Art, PDF|publisher=shareholder.com|access-date=7 September 2018}}{{dead link|date=September 2018}}</ref>]]

He sought the company of artists such as [[Maurice Utrillo|Utrillo]] and [[Soutine]], seeking acceptance and validation for his work from his colleagues.<ref name="Werner 1967 19" /> Modigliani's behavior stood out even in these [[Bohemianism|Bohemian]] surroundings: he carried on frequent affairs, drank heavily, and used [[absinthe]] and [[hashish]]. While drunk, he would sometimes strip himself naked at social gatherings.<ref name="werner-24">{{Cite book | last = Werner | first = Alfred | year = 1985 | title = Amedeo Modigliani | location = New York | publisher = Harry N. Abrams, Inc. | isbn = 0-8109-1416-6 | page = [https://archive.org/details/amedeomodigliani0000modi/page/24 24] | url = https://archive.org/details/amedeomodigliani0000modi/page/24 }}</ref> He died in Paris, aged 35. He became the epitome of the tragic artist, creating a posthumous legend almost as well known as that of [[Vincent van Gogh]].

During the 1920s, in the wake of Modigliani's career and spurred on by comments by [[André Salmon]] crediting hashish and absinthe with the genesis of Modigliani's style, many hopefuls tried to emulate his "success" by embarking on a path of substance abuse and bohemian excess. Salmon claimed that whereas Modigliani was a totally pedestrian artist when sober, "...from the day that he abandoned himself to certain forms of debauchery, an unexpected light came upon him, transforming his art. From that day on, he became one who must be counted among the masters of living art."<ref name="Werner 1967 20">{{Cite book| last = Werner | first = Alfred | year = 1967 | title = Amedeo Modigliani | location = London | publisher = Thames and Hudson. | page = 20| isbn = 0-8109-0323-7}}</ref>

Some art historians suggest<ref name="Werner 1967 20" /> that it is entirely possible that Modigliani would have achieved even greater artistic heights had he not been immured in, and destroyed by, his own self-indulgences.